So much hinges on a logo: a simple mistake can alter the entire meaning of your image and make you a joke. These eleven examples all failed on some level.

Kid's Exchange

A space (or lack of a space) can make all the difference in your logo. You can deduce what the business actually does pretty easily, sure, but that first impression is important and will never, ever go away, much like the mistake which led to it.

2.

Brazilian Institute for Oriental Studies

The amount of detail used in a design can greatly affect how the image is read. Minimalist symbols force the viewer's mind to do all the work, and sometimes our minds go to... places. Strange, strange, places. It's supposed to be a pagoda in front of a sun, but,well, you get it.

3.

Dough Boys

It's hard to deny that this logo looks like, well, yeah. It's easy to see how this happened: the designer simply threw the initials together and was pleased with the symmetry. If that's true then it's understandable how this faux-pas continues to happen, sometimes with different letters.

4.

Locum

This one's only bad after breaking through some language barriers. Locum is a Swedish real-estate group. English readers seeing this logo will think something else, though. A capital L, or maybe not swapping the O with a heart, could have saved this one some embarrassment.

5.

2012 Olympics Logo

This one, more than any other, is like an ink-blot test: does it look like a swastika? Lisa Simpson performing a sex act? The word 'Zion'? All three have been thrown out there, but regardless of what you see, one thing is perfectly clear: it's uglier than sin.

6.

Chief Wahoo

It's easy to point out racist caricatures in older logos, but the the thing about Cleveland's baseball logo/mascot is that it's survived into modern day with few redesigns. The controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo continues to this day.